The Cross in the Life of a Christian

Image from the movie, "The Passion of the Christ"

Today, September 14, we celebrate the Exultation of the Holy Cross. 

Carrying the cross is one of the challenges of the Lord Jesus Christ to all those who wish to be His followers [see Luke 9:23, Matthew 16:24]. According to St Paul, the Lord Jesus crucified is a stumbling block to the Jews and a foolishness to the Gentiles [see 1 Corinthians 1:23]. In today's readings, the Lord Jesus compares Himself to the bronze serpent which the Moses lifted up in order to save those who have been bitten by the snakes in the desert. 

There are many, even some Christians, who do not subscribe to the use of the cross - much more the crucifix [the cross with the image of the Lord Jesus crucified] for they view it as a form of idolatry or image-worship. But they fail to understand that even in Christian liturgy as in the Jewish worship, images and symbols play an important part. Even God Himself ordered the making of images though He Himself prohibited the Israelites from idol worship [see Exodus 25: 18-20, Numbers 21: 8-9, Ezekiel 41: 17-18 among others].

The point here is that God uses objects and images in order to convey His message of salvation and to work out such message through the same images and objects. What God prohibited is for us to substitute things, ideas, even persons, and others as our object of worship or supreme trust in a way that we deny, reject, lessen, the honor due to Him alone. Our trust in the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is not in any way a degradation of our faith in God but a manner of affirming our trust in His marvelous ways which the most intelligent mind cannot fully understand and the best intention to give Him worship cannot truly equal. 

The Jews were blessed to be the Chosen People but amid the many great things that God did for them, they failed to see the fullness of His love and mercy. They could not accept that God would go down to be with His people and lead them personally out of their bondage to sin through the Lord Jesus Christ who came as one among them and dying the most dishonorable death - upon the Cross! Greeks, Gentiles, could not understand how a God could give up Himself to die for the sake of the people. Logic does not seem to offer a reasonable explanation why one - especially a God - should do that particularly for a people who seem to be unworthy of any redemption. 

But such is the mystery of the Cross and the love of God which goes beyond any mortal understanding. That is the immensity of divine love that God would even die for His creation in order for it to be cleansed from sin in order to show mankind the right and proper way toward holiness. He is not a magician who would turn things into something else with a swish of a wand. He is a God who shows the right and proper way of how things should be done. It is up to us to follow that way and reap the fruit of salvation or choose to do otherwise and be led toward eternal damnation.

There are people who could not understand why a loving God could allow some people to be damned forever. But God does not want anyone to be damned. It is our choices that lead us to where we shall be at the time of reckoning. Simple human laws show us that punishment is necessary in order to keep society in order. Without the pain of penalties and imprisonment, criminals would have nothing to fear or stop them from doing harm to the obedient citizens of society. Though others obey only the law out of fear, it is up to him  or her to reflect about these laws as protection and not prohibitions. If only everyone fully exercises the only important law which is the law of charity, then we should not have to make any other law on earth.

Hence the Cross tells us this thing: life is not easy - particularly Christian life. St Teresa of Avila once asked why amid her faithfulness to God He would still bring her many trials and God responded by saying that it is how He treats His friends. The Lord Himself said that if we want to be perfect we must give up many things. The perfection that we, humans, go after is the very perfection that we must disregard if we really want to be with God: for we are called to deny ourselves, carry our crosses and to follow His way.

Let us remember that when the Lord Jesus Christ asked the Father if it was possible that He should not suffer anymore, He did not demand for a favorable response. Instead He affirmed that only the Father's will should be done, not His, not anyone else's. The Cross cannot be gone from the life of the Christian. For it is the measure of our true obedience to the will of the Father just like how the Lord Jesus Christ accepted and accomplished it.

And it is by the Cross that we could show the Lord that we accept His offer of holy friendship because it is only by giving up our very lives - the supreme manifestation of love and charity - for a friend - especially for God - that we could truly be His friends [see John 15: 12-17].